Description of Research Expertise

My research interests are focused on translational genomics in childhood
cancers. I am trained in computational cancer genomics and am studying the complex interplay between germline and tumor genetics and their effect on tumor initiation, progression and response to therapy. My research program is inherently multi-disciplinary in that it couples integrative computational analyses of large scale data such as next generation sequencing, single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping, mRNA, miRNA and lincRNA expression, epigenetic profiling, and DNA copy number data, with rigorous experimental validation. We are defining how neuroblastoma-associated SNPs and copy number variations (CNVs) influence tumorigenesis and patient outcome and have recently identified LIN28B as a major oncogenic driver in neuroblastoma. In parallel to this, and as part of new project, we are investigating genetic susceptibility to treatment related comorbidities such as platinum-induced hearing loss.